


Keeping Up Appearances

by Estirose



Series: Charmed Life [2]
Category: Charmed, Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-10
Updated: 2010-04-10
Packaged: 2017-10-08 20:37:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are monsters attacking Reefside... except they aren't monsters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping Up Appearances

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Characters don't belong to me. Characters belong to Spelling Entertainment (Charmed) and BVE/VRP (Power Rangers Dino Thunder). The character of Karen Ford belongs to tptigger.
> 
> Author's note: This is a sequel to tptigger's "Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies", and assumes you've read that story. If you don't, you probably will be lost. This is a Charmed/PRDT crossover.

"Hey, guys! There's a monster at Muir University library!" Ethan called through the morpher.

Kira sighed. So much for her English assignment. She scribbled a note to her mom, knowing that if something happened and her mom paniced again, she'd have to deal with Chris. And after last time, she really didn't want Chris to nose in on her business again.

She ran downstairs, leaving the note on the kitchen table and running out the back door. After a moment, she ran back to lock it. She looked around; no one in sight. "Dino Thunder! Power Up! Ha!"

In an instant, she was morphed and on her way to the battle site.

Chris was not having a good day. He had gone to the Muir University Library in hopes of locating a rare text that had the information the Charmed Ones needed. Unfortunately, the moment that he came out of the stairwell, everybody started screaming and running away. "What's going on?" he asked a man coming out of the stacks.

The man took one look at him, dropped his books, and ran into the stacks again.

Chris froze for a moment. He should go to Leo about this; yet he also critically needed to get the information.

As he was debating his choices, three figures in white, red, and yellow appeared. "Hold it right there!" Red called.

Chris froze. He'd heard of the Power Rangers, never seen one in person. "Wait a minute..."

"Are you going to go back to Mesogog, or are we going to have to kick your sorry ass back there?" Red asked.

"Who's Mesogog?" Chris asked, more lost than ever.

"Guys, something is seriously wrong here." He half-turned towards the figure in yellow, the one who had spoken. She looked at him. "What's your name?"

"Chris."

She seemed to ponder that for a moment. "Guys, I don't think he's one of Mesogog's."

"You're kidding, right?" Red asked.

"No, something's wrong here." There was a conviction in her voice now. She looked at him. "Chris, whoever you are, you might want to get out of here."

"You sure?" White asked Yellow. "I mean..."

"I know what he looks like!" Yellow declared. "Chris. Go."

Chris didn't need to be told twice. He got out of there and ran to the nearest stairwell, orbing out to safety.

What did you do that for?" Conner demanded, after they'd demorphed. They were standing outside the library after Chris had sensibly left. "That was one of Mesogog's monsters!"

"How many monsters are named 'Chris'?" Kira demanded back.

"He could have just been saying that to get you off your guard," Trent answered.

"Right," Kira said. She still couldn't see her whitelighter, but she knew that had been him in there.

"He's right," Conner said. "Mesogog probably knows about that friend of your mom's."

"Look," Kira blasted back, "Something's seriously wrong here. That monster acted like Chris. I bet if I called Chris, he'd tell me how the Power Rangers totally terrorized him."

Conner produced a cell phone. "Call him, then."

Kira rolled her eyes. "You think I know the phone number for the dork right off the top of my head?"

"Right," Conner said. "I still say something weird's going on."

"You got that right," Kira said, almost to herself.

"Wait a minute, I thought the Power Rangers only attacked bad guys." Paige, the only one of the three Charmed Ones present at the mansion, looked at Chris.

"They thought I was some kind of monster," Chris offered. He looked towards Leo.

Leo shifted. "Generally, yes. However, we've had two other cases of the Power Rangers attacking whitelighters in the past few weeks. We thought it was a case of mistaken identity - they were both dealing with human-looking demons."

"But they thought Chris was a monster," Paige interjected. "Except the Yellow Ranger."

"I don't think she could see me," Chris said. "Just could tell that something's wrong."

Paige nodded. "Thankfully." She looked over at Leo. "I can see he's Chris, why can't anybody else?"

"Maybe witches can see me as I am," Chris offered. "And everybody else sees me as... a monster." He shook his head. "I need to get to the bottom of this. I need that text!"

"We need to find out why everybody's seeing you as a monster first," Paige reminded him. "Anybody you know in the area?"

"Chris has charges in the area," Leo said, turning to Chris. "Why don't you pay them a visit."

"Good idea," Chris said, orbing out.

"Kira!"

Kira looked up from her homework. "What now?" she grumbled. She yelled back, "I'm doing homework!"

"Can you come down for a moment, honey?" her mother called.

"Okay," Kira said, closing her book. "Be right down." She wondered if she was in trouble from the note that she'd left. She was trying her best not to alarm her mom, really.

Kira dragged her feet downstairs. Not seeing her mom in the living room, she went into the kitchen, where her mom waited... as well as a familiar monster. She blinked, her muscles going into an automatic defensive stance.

"It's okay, honey," her mother said, in her most soothing tone. "It's Chris."

"Um, mom, that's not Chris." She paused. The feeling was back. "Well, it's kind of Chris, but it's not Chris."

"Right," the monster-form rumbled.

"Um, Chris, this is so not funny," Kira said.

"I'm not doing this on purpose," Chris said, sounding exasperated under the furry form. "Something's making all whitelighters look like monsters in this area. I needed to see how I appeared to you and your mother."

"Chris says the Rangers have been attacking Whitelighters," her mom said.

"How many times?" Kira asked, her stomach suddenly doing a loop-de-loop.

"Three times, including this afternoon." Chris sounded annoyed. Kira sat down heavily on a kitchen stool.

"Kira, what's wrong?" her mother asked.

"I just... it's kind of like it doesn't make any sense," Kira said, evading the question. "I mean, they're supposed to be the good guys."

If Chris caught the slip, his monster face didn't reflect it. Her mom appeared oblivious. "Anyway," Chris said, "At least we know now."

"Kira," her mom said, "You're under a spell."

"Well, duh. Of course I'm under a spell!"

"Chris," her mother said, rolling her eyes, "Is somebody handling this besides you?"

The monster form nodded.

"Good," her mother said. "Maybe you and they can find a way to break the spell on Kira?"

"Wouldn't the spell be on the whole town, not on every person?" Kira asked, not wanting Chris or anyone else to find out about her Ranger status. With her luck, the spell affected non-witch civilians differently than it did Rangers. "It would make sense."

"Yes, but honey... I hate for you not to be able to recognize your own Whitelighter."

Kira bit her tongue, knowing the last thing she needed was a lecture from both Chris and her mother about Chris being her whitelighter. "Chris looks like a monster right now. I get it. It's cool."

"But still..." her mom looked at her. Then monster-Chris. Then her again. Then monster-Chris. "Honey, can you go with him to make sure?"

Kira sighed.

The Chris-monster held out his pincer. "Come on, Kira."

Kira sighed again. "Mom, I have homework!"

"Kira..." Her mom had that no-nonsense tone that Kira hated. "Chris needs to break this spell badly. He's got other charges to help."

"I have a science test tomorrow!" It had always stopped Chris before.

"I have a text I need to read, but I can't do it like this!" Chris snapped.

"All right," Kira grumbled, hoping nobody would wonder where she was.

Chris held out his hand, and she took it, surprised to find a hand beneath the apparent pincer. She closed her eyes.

Chris orbed himself and Kira back to the Halliwell mansion. Karen had been right; he needed to break the spell, or at least help the Charmed Ones break it, and Kira was not likely to balk. At least not compared to someone from a non-witch family. He nudged her.

"Kira? We're here."

Kira opened her eyes, took one look at Leo, and took a step back, falling once more into a defensive position. "Whitelighter?" she asked, turning towards Chris.

"Elder," Chris told her. He studied her. She'd been able to tell with him, maybe it was a witch family thing. "You can tell?"

Kira frowned. "I can't tell that he's not a monster, no. But since you're taking me to get help, and he's not attacking you, and you're not attacking him, I guess he's not a monster."

"No," Chris said.

"Not much experience with demons?" Paige asked.

"No magic," Chris said. "Did you call the others?"

"Piper took Wyatt to the store, and Phoebe just had to run down to the post office," Paige said. "They'll be back in a few. I started looking through the Book of Shadows..."

"Any luck?" Chris asked. Kira sat down on a nearby chair.

Paige shook her head. "No, but there has to be something."

"Chris," Kira asked, "Could you get my schoolbooks? The last thing I need is to fail one of Dr. O's tests..."

Chris, wanting to forstall any arguments from Kira, nodded. "Okay." He orbed out of the mansion back to the Ford home in Reefside.

"Chris? Is something wrong?" Karen Ford asked. She was sitting on her daughter's bed.

"Kira wants to do her homework," Chris explained.

"Oh," Karen said. "Chris... is she going to be all right?"

Chris shook his head. "We don't know yet. She's not terrified of my appearance, that's for sure."

Karen smiled sadly. "You're her Whitelighter. She knows that."

"She could tell it was me," Chris agreed. "She didn't recognize the Elder that was giving us a hand."

"That's not good," Karen said. "Here are her books. If she has to stay over, let me know, and I'll call her in sick for school tomorrow."

"I hope not," Chris told her, taking the offered books. "But if she has to, I'll be sure to let you know."

Karen managed a small smile. "Thanks, Chris. I'll cover any way I can."

Chris nodded. "I'll have her home when I can." He orbed out, with the books.

Kira waited patiently while the other woman did research and the Elder - well, monster-looking Elder - occasionally pointed out things. It was just a tad disturbing to have the two of them talk about her and her situation, as if she wasn't even in the room. But maybe that's how Elders acted. It wasn't as if she tried to seek out the company of even a whitelighter. In fact, in Chris' case, she'd tried her best to avoid him.

A familiar-looking monster orbed in, holding her books. "Thanks, Chris," she said gratefully.

"Chris?" a second voice asked. A woman entered. "What's going on?" Kira absently noted she was holding a child.

"Hi, Piper," the research woman said. "We're trying to figure out how to break that spell that has Chris looking like a monster."

Kira raised her hand. "I got volunteered."

"Piper," Chris said, "This is Kira Ford. Her family's from Reefside, part of the affected area."

"Hi," Piper said, in a distracted tone.

"My mom's a witch," Kira explained. "I'm not, so I'm here so that you guys can break the spell on me so Chris doesn't look like he has pincers."

Chris handed the books to her. "You mom will call you in sick if she needs to," Chris said.

"Chris, I have a science test tomorrow," Kira protested. "Not to mention Conner's going to teach me soccer." She thought of the missed practice. No way was Dr. O going to like this.

"He'll live," Chris informed her. "Witch duties come first."

Kira resisted throttling him. For one thing, she had no idea where she was, or how to get home.

A third woman joined them. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Over here," the first woman said. The second woman handed the child off to the Elder-monster. Kira reigned in her instincts to save the child. She shifted uncomforatbly. I can't let any of them find out about me being a Ranger.

But the three women were far too involved in their research to notice. The elder had his eyes on the child, and Chris seemed involved in keeping an eye on her. "Where's the bathroom in this place?" she asked.

"I'll show you," Chris volunteered.

"Just... point me in the right direction," Kira said. "It's... um... that time of the month."

"And you were going to play soccer?" Chris asked in disbelief.

"Do you know how long it's taken him to agree?" Kira asked. "There's no way that I would have let that stop me!"

Chris sighed. "Downstairs, and to your left."

"Thanks, Chris," she said, leaving her books on the chair. She walked downstairs to find a bathroom... and, incidentally, call her teammates before Dr. O, Conner, or Ethan worried themselves sick.

She soon found the bathroom. "Kira for Ethan."

"Ethan here. What's up?"

"Mom's having me stay over at Chris' tonight," Kira said.

"Okay, why aren't you telling Dr. O this?" Ethan asked, confused.

"'Cause I know he'll freak," Kira reasoned.

"So you want me to tell Dr. O that you're at Chris' place so he doesn't freak. That works really well, Kira."

"Well, yeah," Kira said.

"Tell him yourself, you know how he gets," Ethan said.

"I can't!" Kira protested.

"Look, I'm not telling him. Get Conner to do it."

"Okay," Kira said. "I'll get Conner to do it."

"Right. Ethan out."

Kira sighed. Conner wouldn't listen. Maybe Trent would.

"Kira for Trent."

"Trent here. What's up, Kira?"

"Hey, could you tell Dr. O I'm at Chris' place for the night?" Kira asked.

"You're where?" Trent demanded.

"Mom thinks I need to spend more time with Chris," Kira said though gritted teeth.

"Are you sure it's safe? And why aren't you using your cell phone anyway?"

"Long story," Kira said. "I'll talk to you later."

She deactivated the 'comm and left the bathroom before Chris could get suspicious. She headed back upstairs, only to find that the three women were still discussing spells, the elder was still holding the child, and Chris was paging through her science textbook.

"Chris?"

"A lot of this is so wrong."

"If you're talking about the fact that you look like you're brown, furry, and have pincers, you're right," Kira said.

Chris indicated the text book. "No, this."

Kira sighed. "Could you not criticize my science teacher for once?"

Chris shook his head and closed the book with a thump. "Why don't you do your homework. I'm going to see about setting up a couch for you."

Kira groaned.

"I can't take you home until I stop having pincers, I promised your mother," Chris said.

"All right," Kira said.

Kira watched Chris go downstairs, and settled back into her homework discontentedly. Her morpher bleeped loudly.

"I'll be right back," Kira said, getting up. She only hoped that the others would think she had a cellphone on her when Chris had orbed her out.

She got up, heading downstairs yet again, and into the bathroom. "This is Kira."

"Kira? Are you all right?" It was Dr. O's voice.

"I'm fine," she said.

"Trent didn't think so," Dr. O told her.

"Trent's a little biased, don't you think?"

"Trent is your teammate, he's supposed to be worried about you," Dr. O pointed out. "And what's this about Chris?"

Kira rolled her eyes. "It's okay, Dr. O."

"Right," Dr. O said. "You gonna be in class tomorrow?"

"You're having a test. There's no way I'd miss it," Kira told him.

"Just remember the make-up test is always harder," Dr. O teased.

Kira rolled her eyes. "I know. And I don't want to miss practice, either."

"Good," Dr. O said. "Call if you need help, okay Kira?"

"Okay." She heard a knocking on the bathroom door. "I'll be in touch."

"Right. Dr. O out."

Kira sighed. "Be right out." She flushed the toilet, washed her hands, and opened the door.

Chris was waiting for her. He looked at her suspiciously.

"What?" she demanded.

"You brought your cell phone with you?" Chris asked.

"Duh," Kira told him.

Chris made an exasperated noise. "Come on, I've got you a couch."

"A couch. Wow."

"Kira, be serious."

"Chris, I'm who knows where, I have a science test tomorrow, Conner's expecting me at soccer practice, and I'm having a conversation with a big furry thing with pincers!"

"And we're here to fix that last part," Chris said. "Come on, back upstairs."

Kira shook her head. "Only if I can go to school tomorrow." Dr. O would kill her if she didn't. Or call out every other Ranger in the time period to find her.

"If the others can get you back to normal, then yes," Chris said.

Kira's morpher bleeped again.

"Right. I'll be upstairs."

Chris rolled his eyes. "All right, go answer your cellphone first."

"Thanks!" Kira exclaimed. Not that she really wanted to answer it, but...

Kira sat down on a nearby couch after Chris left. "Kira here."

"Kira, where does Chris live?" Dr. O's voice came through the morpher, a hint of panic in his voice.

"Out of town," Kira said, shrugging. "Why?"

"I can't detect you on the scanners."

"Dr. O, I'm okay, just let me know if we get any more monsters," Kira said.

"Kira, are you sure you're all right?" Dr. O asked.

"Yeah," Kira said. "I'm good. I'm sure there's a scanner glitch or something." She paused. "Take care, and tell Conner I was right."

"About what?" Dr. O asked.

"Something's making people show up as monsters. We accidentally attacked Chris today, and I'm trying to figure out why."

"So, that's why you're at Chris'?" Dr. O asked.

Kira nodded, forgetting he couldn't see her. "Yeah. He was totally tramatized by that. I'm just lucky I recognized how the dork moves."

"Right," Dr. O said. "See you in class tomorrow."

Kira nodded. "I will." Assuming Chris or his buddies don't pull anything.

"Right. Out." The comm signal terminated. Kira sighed and went upstairs.

The three women were waiting for her. "Kira, could you come here please?" Research Woman asked.

"Um, right," Kira said. Maybe she'd get back home tonight after all.

She stepped into a chalked circle nervously. "Ready?" Research woman asked.

"I think so," Kira said. She looked at Chris.

"All that are blinded by magic sight, make your eyes see clear this night!" the three witches chanted together, and Kira was blinded by a white flash.

Suddenly she was lying on the floor, blinking residual white spots out of her eyes, with the three witches standing above her. "Kira, are you okay?" Chris asked.

Kira looked up, trying to spot Chris' monster form. But there were no monsters in the room; merely the three witches, Chris, another man, and the child. "You're you again."

"It's only temporary, Chris," Research Woman warned. "The spell has to be broken on the Dino Thunder Rangers for it to be permanent."

Kira only wished she could tell Research Woman that she was one of the Rangers, which meant that the spell could be broken on the rest. "By the way, who are you guys?"

"Chris, you didn't tell her?" Research Woman asked.

Chris shook his head. "I've been kind of occupied," he confessed.

"Hi, I'm Paige Matthews, this is my sister Phoebe Halliwell, and my other sister, Piper Halliwell," Research woman said, turning towards one, then the other.

Kira was sure her eyes were growing wide as plates. "The Charmed Ones?" The spell on her had been broken by the Charmed Ones?

Which meant that her mom shared a Whitelighter with them. Even Kira felt a sense of awe in that.

"Yes," Paige said. "So, Kira, you live in Reefside - I know the Dino Thunder Rangers mainly appear there. Know anything on how to lure them out?"

"Um..." Kira thought fast. "A monster attacking innocents might work."

"Chris does look like a monster to the rest of Reefside," Paige said thoughtfully.

"The Yellow Ranger did get them to back away," Chris said.

Kira stopped herself from nodding. There was no way she could know about what had happened in the library. "Maybe since they're good guys, maybe the Yellow Ranger knew you were good as well?" she asked. "Which means they probably wouldn't attack you again, if she convinced them you were good."

"She's got a point," Phoebe told him. She looked thoughtful. "Let's disguise you as a different monster!"

Chris groaned.

"Chris you may be now, but now look then, look a monster now again!" Paige chanted.

In Kira's eyes, Chris went back to his monster form. "Um, he looks just like he did a few minutes ago."

"Maybe... a different look," Piper suggested.

"Fur become scales, pincers become claws, let him change from what he was!"

Instantly, the furry form changed into something remotely resembling something from Star Trek. That was the only way Kira could think of it. Phoebe examined the new form. "Kira? He look threatening enough?"

"I think so," Kira said, examining the form. "Okay, who's going to be the damsel or guy in distress?" She looked at the elder, who was still holding the child.

"Actually, he needs to stay here," Piper said. She smiled at Kira. "You're familiar with the area, so you can go and be Chris' victim."

"Um, he's mom's whitelighter, I kinda don't have a reason to struggle here," Kira pointed out.

"And yours," the Elder said.

Kira shrugged. "Anyway, I really don't make a good victim."

"I really don't make a good monster, so what's your point?" Chris asked. "Kira, come on, I need this spell broken and us standing here arguing about it won't get it broken."

"He's got a point," Paige said. "Chris, why don't you orb Kira out, and I'll get Phoebe and Piper?"

The monster nodded. He held out a claw, and Kira took it. "By the way... are they going to... remember any of this?"

"Given how you reacted," Paige said, "we really don't know."

"Gee, thanks," Kira muttered. With her luck, her teammates would see everything.

The five of them reappeared in an alley in Reefside. "Now what?" Kira asked.

"Chris, act monsterish," Phoebe instructed, as the three hid behind some dumpsters.

Chris-monster nodded and suddenly Kira had a claw clamped around her wrist. She barely managed not to scream; the last thing she wanted was the Charmed Ones and Chris finding out about her new talent. However, she did bring Chris off-balance. "Kira!" he whispered.

"Sorry," she mouthed. They didn't have time to do anything more as Kira's teammates arrived in the alley, and Chris was thrown back by Trent's attack. He let go of her wrist, and was getting up to 'attack' once again as Kira saw the sisters stand up, preparing to cast their spell. Then the world exploded in light again.  
"Ugh, what hit us?" Conner muttered as the light cleared. Kira looked over at her teammates.

"Kira, you okay?" Trent, her sometime boyfriend, asked.

Conner looked up, not seeing Chris, now back to his normal appearance. "Kira? You all right? I swear I saw the library monster again."

"Everyone all right?" Dr. O said, getting up. He spotted her Whitelighter, and she knew it was only Ranger protective instinct that made him struggle up towards the other man. "Chris, what are you doing here?"

"We attacked the dork... Chris again," Kira said.

Chris' eyes narrowed at that, and she hoped against hope that he was so offended by the term that he wouldn't catch the 'again'. Behind him, she could vaguely see the Charmed sisters, hiding behind a convenient dumpster.

"Are you all right?" Dr. O asked, still in a 'protect the civilian' mode.

"I'm fine. Kira?" Chris asked, obviously also in protective mode. "And what are your friends doing here?"

"I'll be okay. I guess... um, I'll see you later, Chris," she said, wanting to get out of there before her Whitelighter caught onto the truth or her teammates realized what had happened.

"But..." Chris started, before she'd taken Conner and Trent by the arm and started pulling them out of the alley before Chris could ask any awkward questions. The rest of her team, as she glanced back, started to follow, leaving her Whitelighter and the Charmed sisters behind.

"You sure you're okay, Kira?" Conner asked, still obviously stunned by the spell.

Trent paused, causing her to stop. "Wait a minute, weren't you at his house?"

Kira sighed. "It's a long story." A long one, she knew, if she was to keep her two worlds apart. She only hoped she'd succeed.

Chris had later managed to retrieve the scrolls that the Charmed ones needed, and the family (sans Leo, who was of course taking care of Elder business) was relaxing in the living room. Wyatt was in his playpen, and all was well with the world. Which of course, left time to think, for the moment.

"I'm so glad we didn't have to break the spell on the Yellow Ranger," Phoebe muttered.

Chris nodded. The revelation that the Rangers were Kira's schoolmates and teacher did make him understand why they stuck around each other so much, but he really didn't want to get attacked by them again.

"But we did," Paige said, after spraying a plant with some water. "She was there."

"Where?" Phoebe asked. "I didn't..."

And suddenly, Chris knew. "We attacked Chris again."

Phoebe just looked at him.

Chris felt wobbly. Why hadn't we known? "She said, 'We attacked Chris again'."

"Which means..."

Chris got up to go visit a certain Charge of his. He suspected they needed a very long talk. "Kira Ford... is the Yellow Ranger."

End


End file.
